Corporate family fun days are a fantastic way to bring your company together! It’s a perfect chance for your team to show off where they work, who they work with and why they care so much. It’s truly is about your community & culture! Given corporate family fun days potential in uniting people, it’s important to take a few planning steps prior to the big day.

What do you want to achieve?

This seems like an obvious step but often can be missed in the excitement in creating a corporate event. Are you trying to re-engage your team? Are you showcasing a new product or service? Are you celebrating a milestone? What is your family fun day all about? Once you identify exactly what your event is about you’ll find it easier to tailor the messaging, the creative, the interactives and the take-aways for your families. Some things to consider:

• Have you aligned your family fun day with your overall corporate goals & culture?
• How will you create buy-in from the executive team?
• What will be the ROI? How will you measure success?
• Is the day aligned with your brand strategy?
• Are you trying to educate & inform people? Is this simply a fun day?

Make it interesting!

No matter what you’re celebrating, if the actual day’s content is boring you’ve missed the mark. Rather than creating a half-hearted attempt, go all out! It’s not a matter of spending a huge amount of money, it’s about creating an atmosphere that is memorable and which identifies with your company culture. Make it fun, make it interactive and make it attractive for families to want to come.

• Create a theme that the kids attending can dress up for. Jungle, safari and winter wonderland are classic themes that families can work with but you could also look at under the sea, prehistoric or futuristic themes as well. The chosen theme also then opens up ideas for the catering, the signage, the giveaways, music and more. A photobooth or themed wall with hashtags is an opportunity here!
• Create fun challenges for the families to complete in for prizes. Minute-to-win-it challenges with a vibrant host on stage work incredibly well and make for fantastic images & videos!
• Have drop-in interactive displays where kids and their parents can join in together. Don’t be afraid to get a little messy!
• Think about the games you played as a kid… now upsize it! Giant Jenga, Twister, Connect 4, Ring Toss and more are all effective games that people of all ages love. Importantly, these games get kids playing with adults very easily.
• If it’s being held on your grounds, are there areas of your grounds where the families can get behind the scenes?
• Consider a stage show! The stage itself also lends itself to a variety of performances as well as a central location for announcements, awards, competitions and more.

Use some tech

There are many ways you can engage your families before, during and after the family fun day! As long as its aligned with your event goals, technology can certainly enhance the experience. Here’s a few ideas;

• Have a roving person with a microphone to capture short interviews for a podcast.
• Use an event app to create gaming opportunities with team leaderboards and more.
• Try Google Cardboard to create AR (augmented reality) or VR (virtual reality) at your site.
• Use a service such as UpShow to showcase live tweets to your big screen. Be sure to moderate this!
• Film snippets of the event and create a highlights reel to send to families afterwards.

Don’t forget the food!

Ask anyone who has attended an event and often it comes down to what they got to do and what was the food like. Knowing this,  your opportunity to try something creative that families will enjoy. This is also an opportunity to poll your team members to get buy-in prior to the event too. Just remember, kids can be fussy so now isn’t the time for the very best gourmet food!

• Have a self-service taco bar where families can build their own creations. As there are kids attending, keep the spice low in the meat and have the chilli sauces on the side.
• A hamburger bar & hotdog stands also work. Again it’s about the interactivity of the families getting to be involved, plus the food service can be quick and fresh.
• If your event is in winter, soups and fresh breads are always a crowd pleaser.
• Have gluten free options available as well as alternatives for known allergies such as egg or seafood. Avoid anything to do with nuts on a family fun day as the kids attending might well be allergic and not yet diagnosed.
• If you do want some gourmet options, get some food vans in for some spicy fare!
• Who doesn’t love a dessert bar? Colourful bites and fruit options cover a variety of interests. We’ve got to admit, the liquid nitrogen ice-cream we make is a big wow factor!
• Don’t forget to allow for rubbish! Where possible make it recyclable and clearly marked.

With planning, your corporate family fun day needn’t be a hassle. The main priority is that the families have fun at your site and that they feel that they can interact with each other and get to know others. If the families are posting happy pictures to your social site, the kids are having fun at the interactives you’ve organised and your team are relaxed and at ease, you know you’ve hit the mark!

No matter what, have fun with it!

Ben Newsome

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